Where Facebook Stands on its 10th Birthday

Tech giant Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday on February 4, 2014. To commemorate its incredible journey of 10 years, the social networking site has launched an ‘A Look Back‘ product which allows users to see a personalized movie or collection of photos along with their biggest moments ever since they joined the service. When Mark Zuckerberg and others launched Facebook on Feb 4, 2004, it was only accessible from Harvard University. Today, Facebook is a powerful social media platform with over 1.2 billion monthly active users across the world. Letâ€™s take a quick look at Facebookâ€™s landmark achievements since it was born:

Self-Service Ads and Facebook Pages â€“ The launch of self-service ads targeting in the news feed and Facebook pages in November 2007 was very crucial for online marketers. Experts point out that the introduction of newsfeed ads has literally shifted the dynamics of business. While self-service ads provide a cost-effective advertising alternative for online marketers, Facebook pages are an excellent, comprehensive platform for internet marketing. Though the advertisers are a little upset with the sunset of sponsored ads in April, 2014, Zuckerbergâ€™s ten year plan includes the delivery of highly personalized targeted ads in newsfeeds which would greatly increase average revenue per user and profit margins.

Facebook App for iPhone – When Apple launched its App Store in 2008, the Facebook App was among the first 500-or-so apps then available for download. This reinforced the presence of Facebook in the smartphone world. The overwhelming use of smartphones increased the opportunities for social networking, which in turn increased the popularity of Facebook.

Acquisition of Instagram â€“ In 2012, Facebook undertook its largest acquisition ever by buying Instagram for $1 billion. The impetus behind this acquisition was that Facebook realized the photo sharing was crucial to maintain its position on the Internet. A large percentage of posts on the website are photos and being a photo sharing app, Instagram could have been a threat for Facebook. This acquisition helped Facebook relate to younger audience who love to share photos. However, in October 2013, Facebookâ€™s CFO David Ebersman conceded that there were concerns that Facebook was losing out on its popularity with teens.

Recent Q4 Results â€“ Q4 results published in January 2014 depict a positive picture. The earnings are 31 cents per share up from 17 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Facebook revenue has also increased from $1.59 billion to $2.59 billion. The most striking fact in the Q4 results is the 76 percent increase in revenue from advertising with mobile ad revenue accounting for more than 50 percent of the total.

According to a research conducted by iStrategylabs, a digital media agency, if daily use of Facebook has slightly decreased due to the migration of teens to other social media platform, older more professional types of users are filling the gap. While responding to a question about teen migration, Mark Zuckerberg said, “We’re going to focus on building things that teens are going to like and we’re also going to focus on building things that other folks are going to like in different countries around the world, and that’s just what we need to do to serve all the people who rely on us.”

With all the competition out there, Facebook must really go forward to stay relevant. Innovation is the key to success, so letâ€™s hope Facebook comes out with some amazing stuff to meet its challenges.

About Rajeev Rajagopal

Rajeev Rajagopal is the Vice President of Managed Outsource Solutions, a leading BPO company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prior to joining MOS, he worked as a physical therapist. Having worked in several rehabilitation clinics, Rajeev has learned the importance of good medical records for medical billing and liability issues and the importance of the good back and front office support. He has extensive knowledge in SEO, medical billing and coding, and medical transcription. He has worked with a number of large organizations to effectively manage and provide outsourcing solutions.
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